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Hey man, the 1980s are calling, they want their "insult" back...
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If the shoe fits... 
It is true though, like no other form of engineering IT has too high a nerd content to be done professionally.
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I agree with you here. I've notice a number of old school mechanical devices that are poorly designed. For example, they've put in some new paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms and kitchens at work. On the dispenser it says 'pull down slowly with both hands'. Yeah, that's not going to work. Every person I see using the dispensers just grabs the paper with one had and pulls down fairly quickly. Half the time, the paper gets jammed or tears off inside the dispenser. So now you have to resort to the dial on the side of the dispenser to get the paper to a place where you can reach it. Kind of like they only let the designer test the dispenser.
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Yeah, I really hate those dispensers. They expect you to pull on something with wet hands that is just going to tear easily once you grab it. It's gotta be the worst design on the planet.
What the hell ever happened to just keeping things simple? Maybe you remember or maybe you don't, but there used to be towel dispenser that had a crank with rollers. Just grab the crank, rotate it out for the amount of paper you want, then tear it off. Easy, simple, mechanically robust, always worked.
For a lot of stuff, the problem is two fold: First, they gotta make things break so you'll have to buy more of 'em, and second, they have to constantly change things on them (usually to worse solution) to make you either have to buy the new model because old consumables are no longer available or no longer fit - or just to make you think that if you keep the old stuff around, you are no longer "cutting edge" or whatnot.
Basically the automotive sales model.
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I think you got my point very well.
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Business needs trump good engineering. Get it out and start the revenue stream ASAP. And plan for quick obsolescence so that we could sell you the next version. It’s all about the money.
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Quick obsolescence is certainly part of it. However there are other factors I believe. For instance, some products are unsatisfactory from the very start. In such cases is more the 'hurry to put the product on the market' factor.
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Either, the great majority of the repliers to your post didn't understand what you were referring to, or, if they did, made rather indirect and obscure followups 
Or possibly it is me misunderstanding...
In the days of traditional engineering, you studied the requirements, architected the principal aspects of a solution, then went on to designing how you would build a real world solution, and then, when you knew and had documented how to do the building, you set off to do that.
"Software engineering" today is "Well, let's start with 'int main(void) { return 0; }', and develop it further from that point on. ... Done; we have something running. Now, tell me what your problem is!"
The current plus-word for lack of architecture, design and implementation plan is "agile". Any trace of planning is labeled with the double-minus-term "waterfall method", that noone dares to touch with a ten foot pole. "Documentation" is known as "the source code".
You may (mentally - please don't try it in real life) imagine "agile" building of a new house: Let's start digging a hole in ground, so we can use that as a starting point for a concrete foundation. Once we've got the outer walls in place, we can start making a basement floor plan. Since we don't know yet where we will need water, we will simply label the drilling of a hole through the outer wall for the water pipe as a "technical debt"...
Your new GPS watch, blood pressure monitor, TV soundbar or vacuum cleaner rarely fail mechanically. They fail from extremely poor and uncoordinated software development. Even though I am a software guy myself, I fully support the hardware guys claiming that no matter how good quality the hardware is, the software guys (that is us!) manage to mess it up.
An essential part of it is that SW people generally Know The Answer. They have very little tradition for asking the user about his functional needs, work patterns, terminology etc: The SW guys sit in their ivory tower deciding what the user shall like. For the HW part, they don't look at how the hardware actually works, how it is intended to be used, but go ahead programming for how they think the hardware should work, in their opinion, and then they start bitching when it is different.
I know from personal experience, the most explicit one on a library software project when I tried to bring forth some wishes from the libarians themselves, but was cut off by the project leader: "F**k the librarians!"
Yes, there are exceptions: Some of the really huge corportations became huge by actally working together with users to create proper architectures, designs and implementations. Companies like IBM and MS has used large test panels of users, capturing thousands of hours of video and countless megabytes of logs to decide between different choices. Which open source project ever did that? (Generally, they made a direct clone of a product in the market, and when MS, say, decided from their video captures that a UI change would reduce the frequency of user errors, the open source people bitched because then their clone would be looking outdated until they managed to clone the new UI as well...)
I have rejected a quite long list of free, open source software, and spent hundreds of dollars on commercial products that obviously were developed together with users: Steinberg WaveLab as a sound editor and CD authoring package. Adobe CS for video and photo. SketchUp origniated as a professional tool (I bought it before it was bought by Google and provided for free). For years I fought with OpenOffice/LibreOffice, but had to give up: The software is plain rotten compared to MSO, maybe not in socalled "code quality", but in what it gives me as a user (do I need to say more than "help system" for an example?
And SW people all do it in their own way - even wihtin a single project. I replaced my car radio wiht a modern digital one, offering a zillion functions. Each functional area has a menu system, selection logic, cancel logic etc. completely different from the others (e.g. four different menu systems). Make selections in the wrong order, and the radio locks up. The only way to reset the radio is by turning off the car's ignition: The radio does have a "power off", but only as a software button that you can't get at when it is locked up...
Over the years, I have become more and more ashamed over the typical product quality delivered by my own profession.
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Well, I think I understand your point, that is, roughly, 'unreliable software stuff mess up products'.
What I don't understand is the reason driving companies to put on the market such bogus products. I mean there should be solid engineering methods aimed to the final product trustworthiness (hence applied to both hardware and software).
The final customer usually don't care if the hardware is wonderfully built while, due to software failures, it can't be properly used.
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Quote: i actually installed a malware on the X vids (pornographic material) web-site and do you know what, you visited this website to experience fun (you know what i mean). While you were watching videos, your internet browser started working as a Remote Desktop that has a keylogger which provided me with accessibility to your display and cam. Just after that, my software program obtained all of your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook, as well as e-mail . and then i made a double video. 1st part shows the video you were viewing (you've got a good taste : )), and 2nd part shows the recording of your web cam, & its you... ... You'll make the payment through Bitcoin...
I asked her (assuming Erma is her) to post the videos to all my contacts, especially those on Facebook and Messenger (Messenger is still active?)...
The funny that they asked for only $1000 to remove that video... I'm definitely worth much more than that!!!
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge". Stephen Hawking, 1942- 2018
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Please,. check your contacts list - I think you have my email and ... well ... I don't want any nasty surprises ... 
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I asked to send it out especially thinking of you! 
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge". Stephen Hawking, 1942- 2018
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You were thinking of Griff while watching errrr, adult oriented specialist videos?
This space for rent
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Eeeeewwwwwwe! I hadn't thought of that. 
I need another shower ...
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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My brother-in-law called me last month when he got the exact same email...he seemed genuinely scared.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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He may have a web-cam - I do not
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge". Stephen Hawking, 1942- 2018
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Solution for watching pron - do it in vm that doesn't serve any other purpose rather than to watch pron.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Even I was watching porn, there is no way those scams can turn my non-existent web-cam on...
Or read Facebook connection from my non-existent account...
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge". Stephen Hawking, 1942- 2018
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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: The funny that they asked for only $1000 to remove that video... I'm definitely worth much more than that!!!
...
Julius Caesar
When Sulla died in 78 BC, Julius Caesar returned to Rome as a lawyer, prosecuted Sulla's supporters, and headed to the Greek city of Rhodes to study oratory. Pirates seized the vessel in 75 BC, kidnapped Caesar, and held him for ransom. Caesar was insulted at the ransom demand, which he saw as too low, and promised to crucify the pirates after he was free. At his insistence, the pirates raised the ransom demand to a level in accordance with his station; his friends quickly raised the sum. After his freedom was purchased, he assembled a small army, which captured the pirates and crucified them.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Yeah, those emails are hilarious. They make the assumption that "omg, people are going to find out I looked at pr0n!".
I once emailed 'em back and told 'em to go for it - I shot the kneecaps of the hostages a long time ago, nothing embarrasses me on that front.
Not that it really mattered - they assume you're running Windows or such; I've been on Linux here since 1995 or so - and I don't have a webcam hooked up to my box, so there's that, too.
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I just checked my spam folder and I got one of those emails too on the 24th.
Interestingly enough the password quoted was a password I used in the past and it looks like it may have been a LinkedIn or Dropbox hack.
At first I was a bit concerned then when I checked my passwords I noticed that I no longed made use of this password on any site.
When I read up further it turns out that the sites that were hacked were storing unsalted hashed passwords which made it easy for the hackers them to unhash the password.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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By saying that it is just like you. Upon inquiry, I elaborated stating that, she is really helpful and handy, like when things are going good, they are amazing. But, if something goes wrong, hell breaks loose.
Since then, I am trying to explain my intentions and reasons for such a statement, hell did break loose!
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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